Abstract

This paper investigates the bearings of both age and gender as social variables on the production of the two primary emphatics (i.e. [sˤ] vis-a-vis [tˤ]) in Ajlouni Jordanian Arabic, a variety of Rural Jordanian Arabic. Methods: This study adopted the variationist approach to interpret the findings within their social context. To investigate the combined effect of these two social factors on the emphatic sounds/sˤ/ and /tˤ/, sounds were analyzed at the initial and final positions of mono- and disyllabic words in different phonetic environments. Twelve native speakers of the Ajloun dialect participated in the study, divided into three age groups (18-35, 36-50, and 50 and above) and two gender-based groups. Several acoustic parameters (CD, VOT, F1, F2, and F3) were utilized to measure the combined effect of age and gender on the production of emphatic sounds as articulated by the study sample. Results: The study divulged that only VOT is a reliable acoustic correlate of emphasis as far as age and gender are concerned. The present study's findings would broaden researchers' understanding of the conceivable effect(s) a social variable may have in an overall interaction. Conclusions: The study revealed that the effect of emphasis was prominent only in the syllable containing the emphatic sound. This underscores the importance of studies addressing the scope of emphasis in Jordanian dialects in general, and in the Ajlouni dialect in particular.